Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!bbn!uwmcsd1!ig!agate!eos!labrea!decwrl!pyramid!hplabs!hplabsz!taylor
From: gcf@actnyc.UUCP (Gordon Fitch)
Newsgroups: comp.society
Subject: Re: Computer Folklore
Message-ID: <1916@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM>
Date: 20 Apr 88 07:01:27 GMT
Sender: taylor@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM
Organization: InterACT Corporation
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Approved: taylor@hplabs

As far as the various computer folklore stories being related in
this digest, I don't find any of them astounding.  Ignorance is the
condition of all when confronted by unfamiliar machinery.  Generally
the instructions given to the ignorant are poorly written and assume
that the instructee will supply the missing knowledge.  When the 
knowledge isn't there, malfunction is not only to be expected, it's 
almost inevitable.

> Quote of the week: 
>	 "Oh, I don't need a computer, I'm here to do word processing" 

Many people don't consider a device dedicated to word processing to
be a computer.  A friend of mine manages a group of word-processing
people who are part of a data-processing department.  For her and
her colleagues, the computer is the 3081 down the hall, not the
little boxes they work with.  Yes, they know that the boxes contain
computers, they just don't use the word that way, since it would lead
to confusion -- actually, it would lead to derision.

Gordon Fitch