Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ucf-cs.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!harpo!decvax!mcnc!duke!ucf-cs!giles From: giles@ucf-cs.UUCP (Bruce Giles) Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: Re: May 1984 *Analog* < Nuclear flames Message-ID: <1227@ucf-cs.UUCP> Date: Fri, 6-Apr-84 18:51:07 EST Article-I.D.: ucf-cs.1227 Posted: Fri Apr 6 18:51:07 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 7-Apr-84 06:29:02 EST References: <479@aecom.UUCP> Organization: University of Central Florida Lines: 58 After I cooled down somewhat (to put it mildly), I had grabbed the previous month's issue and discovered exactly what you mentioned: the authors were a lawyer and a computer scientist. Furthermore, I have read *Analog* for a number years, and am aware of their views on sterotyping. However, I feel that the situation concerning "hackers" falls into an entirely different category. *I* personally perceive the term "hacker" as being a sterotype. But I am also aware that many *others* do not perceive the word as a sterotype. Instead, it is new expression which does not yet have a univeral meaning. When I am called a "hacker" by fellow graduate students at UCF, I take it as a compliment. In this environment it implies I have a strong interest in computers. However, when a local reporter interviewed me as a "hacker", she was looking for computer criminals. The possibility of my interest in computers being purely `scientific' did not appear to have occured to her. So, I would have WELCOMED the malevolent "hackers" in the story being well-groomed, polite, al nauseam. It would have given the term some depth. After all, if not "hackers" are ill-groomed, perhaps not all "hackers" are out to destroy the world. The other point (which got buried) was that there was a logical incon- sistency with having the male hacker dress/act in the manner he did. I can not conceive of any highly prestegious firm employing people who meet their clients dressed like they just crawled out of a sewer. How would you feel if you went to a car dealership and was greated by some- one with a 3-day beard and filthy sweatclothes, with no one else in site. (That was a typo (but a good one)... it should be `in sight'). Would you feel like parting with your hard-earned cash then? The female hacker and the lawyer were also offensive to me, but to a large extent that was triggered by the anger I felt concerning the male hacker. When I stop a story in the middle, and ask myself if (*) has any relevance to the story, and it still wonder why the author(s) included (*) by the time I finish the story; then I strongly believe the author(s) should have left it out. As I mentioned in the original article, I felt that the characters' shortcomings were gratuitous, and this was the criteria I used. I may have entirely misread the story, but I know that in the approximately 10 years that I have been reading *Analog*, none have made me as furious over what seemed to be meaningless reasons. ave discordia going bump in the night ... bruce giles decvax!ucf-cs!giles university of central florida giles.ucf-cs@Rand-Relay orlando, florida 32816