The things my customers say...

[lxskllr]

More importantly, how often are those offers from someone a reasonable man might consider accepting from?

Probably about as often as he gets tipped for his exceptional service.

 

[Darwin333]

Probably about as often as he gets tipped for his exceptional service.

I dunno, things change quite a bit when you are the decider if a person gets cash, that they at least think they desperately need, or not.

 

[mindless1]

I would have to disagree with you about computers can't die from users smoking around them. I think in this case the system died from overheating from the really thick layer of ashes and dust that covered everything. I certainly wasn't going to risk getting sick from cleaning it.

It depends. If you mean die because nobody is willing to clean it out, sure. If it's just the overheating then it's the same situation as any other computer - clean as needed, but everything else equal it'll need it more often.

 

[lxskllr]

I dunno, things change quite a bit when you are the decider if a person gets cash, that they at least think they desperately need, or not.

I meant the "attractive" part. It wouldn't surprise me a bit if he got offers from some you aren't entirely sure are even human :^D

 

[XMan]

Dilbert has had that covered for almost 30 years now.

Just proves there's a market for it.

I agreed to wipe a lady's old computer one time so she could give it to her niece. I was doing it as a favor off of another, paid, gig so I told her it might be a week or two before I got to it.

So the old HP sits in my office. Coincidentally, my allergies really start bothering me. For three or four days in a row I can't wear contacts, my head is stuffed up and I'm just miserable all the way around. I didn't think anything of it until I popped the side of her old HP off and found three inches of cat hair in the bottom of the case. I almost threw up.

Then, to add insult to injury, this lady went around telling people I "stole" her 56K modem out of this Windows 98 box because I didn't have the driver disks when I reloaded. I banned her for life as a customer.

 

[Darwin333]

I meant the "attractive" part. It wouldn't surprise me a bit if he got offers from some you aren't entirely sure are even human :^D

Ahh, yeah that is why I put the "reasonable man" part in there.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Ahh, yeah that is why I put the "reasonable man" part in there.

Yeah, but when it comes to free hummers very few men are reasonable.

 

[Darwin333]

Yeah, but when it comes to free hummers very few men are reasonable.

Well in this case it's not free but I dunno, I've turned down a few hummers from "questionable" women.

 

[highland145]

How often do you get offered poon or BJs at work? More importantly, how often are those offers from someone a reasonable man might consider accepting from?

I have had a few offers but none that I'd risk my marriage over.

Probably about as often as he gets tipped for his exceptional service.

Hey, now, a lady brought me some lighthouses and another, home made bread. And I've gotten 3 Christmas cards.

Yeah, but when it comes to free hummers very few men are reasonable.

There was a sad case meth head that would panhandle around town. Another business owner found her in a back alley giving BJs. The price was reported as $5. As teh saying goes, "Net even with your dick."

Well in this case it's not free but I dunno, I've turned down a few hummers from "questionable" women.

But what about questionable men?

 

[slag]

No, they weren't. You're wrong and you are perpetuating this failed terminology. It has always meant central processing unit and it is not correct to call any other part of a computer by that name. You wouldn't point at a person and call them a spleen.

The word you're thinking of is computer. That word has been overloaded to mean the tower, but it has evolved to mean whatever form the computer has taken: laptop, desktop, embedded, etc. CPU has always meant CPU and only CPU. It's a specific component with no overloads.

Actually, we're both wrong and right. I have a textbook from college that clearly shows the computer itself is called the CPU or central processing unit. Its only in the past 20 years or so that CPU has come to only mean the processor itself.
I'm not perpetuating failed terminology, its just that the terminology has shifted in the years since computers came out. I definitely dont call a computer a CPU, but am pointing out that technically it is not incorrect use of the word.

 

[slag]

Back in the late '90s / early 2000s, I facepalmed when my "introduction to microcomputers" class taught everyone to call the computer a "CPU." They REALLY reinforced it too.

Even though it was always incorrect, some people were taught that in school.

That's because back in the 90s, it was correct and technically still is, but no one calls a "computer" a cpu anymore.

 

[Darwin333]

But what about questionable men?

Well your wife would almost certainly take that better than a hot woman so maybe it would only cost you a bit in the dog house.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Well your wife would almost certainly take that better than a hot woman so maybe it would only cost you a bit in the dog house.

Just play it off as you being confused,
and get extra sexy timez from the wifey to set you straight.

PROFIT!

 

[bradly1101]

I know someone who always calls hobbies "echelons." "So and so's echelon is guitar playing." You want to correct but realize doing so would not be wise. We let stuff go.

 

[highland145]

Well your wife would almost certainly take that better than a hot woman so maybe it would only cost you a bit in the dog house.

Just play it off as you being confused,
and get extra sexy timez from the wifey to set you straight.

PROFIT!

lol

Both cases end up in castration.

Think I'll keep my pecker under the kitchen sink.

 

[Darwin333]

lol

Both cases end up in castration.

Think I'll keep my pecker under the kitchen sink.

Your wife already keeps your balls in her purse so what would the difference be? She loans them to you less often?

 

[highland145]

Your wife already keeps your balls in her purse so what would the difference be? She loans them to you less often?

She runs them through the sausage grinder....


Need more mayo, my friend?

 

[Darwin333]

She runs them through the sausage grinder....


Need more mayo, my friend?

I knew there was something special about her sammiches! Tell her that she definitely found a better use for them versus what they were doing when you had them.

 

[highland145]

I knew there was something special about her sammiches! Tell her that she definitely found a better use for them versus what they were doing when you had them.

Fine as april wine.

 

[BoomerD]

Fine as april wine.

Finer 'n frog hair.

 

[highland145]

Finer 'n frog hair.

He, you just missed out....just.

 

[MrDudeMan]

Actually, we're both wrong and right. I have a textbook from college that clearly shows the computer itself is called the CPU or central processing unit. Its only in the past 20 years or so that CPU has come to only mean the processor itself.
I'm not perpetuating failed terminology, its just that the terminology has shifted in the years since computers came out. I definitely dont call a computer a CPU, but am pointing out that technically it is not incorrect use of the word.

It's incorrect to use CPU to refer to the case or any of the components therein. What seems to be confusing you is the difference between processor and microprocessor. Processors in the first computers were not on single boards, which apparently could lead someone to believe there was no such thing as a CPU - specifically the central part. The CPU has always been a component. The fact that you have a book that says otherwise isn't validation of the counterpoint; it's validation that incorrect terminology continues to exist.

The consolidation of the CPU onto a monolithic substrate is why we now call CPUs microprocessors the vast majority of the time. CPUs can still spread over multiple physical boards that interconnect via various methods. Microcontrollers are often used as sub-components of what could be called a CPU even though they are sometimes electrically isolated from each other. The concept is the same.

What you're describing is the word computer, which has also evolved to describe more types of machines than what your book would have intended at the time. Even still, calling the tower a CPU was just as wrong then as it is now. Not that it makes me automatically right about this, but I literally spent the first decade of my career as an electrical engineer working on CPUs and I went to the Intel CPU museum about 20 times while I was in Santa Clara for business. This type of terminology is used very specifically; computer is the generalized word that describes things such as towers.

From the Wikipedia article on CPUs:

A central processing unit (CPU) is the electronic circuitry within a computer that carries out the instructions of a computer program by performing the basic arithmetic, logical, control and input/output (I/O) operations specified by the instructions. The computer industry has used the term "central processing unit" at least since the early 1960s.[1]Traditionally, the term "CPU" refers to a processor, more specifically to its processing unit and control unit (CU), distinguishing these core elements of a computer from external components such as main memory and I/O circuitry.[2]

I own the book that's used as reference [2], which disagrees with using CPU as general terminology. That book also pre-dates any argument about supposedly referring to macroscopic components or systems as the CPU.

P.S. Sorry about the really slow reply that almost certainly is too late for anyone to care about at this point. I was out of the country for a while.

 

[Six]

I once had two women at work, late 20s laugh at me for calling their computers - a PC and a Mac. They needed help, wondering why they couldn't save their work to the same excel spreadsheet on a shared drive. They call their computers - my CPU.

 

[whm1974]

I once had two women at work, late 20s laugh at me for calling their computers - a PC and a Mac. They needed help, wondering why they couldn't save their work to the same excel spreadsheet on a shared drive. They call their computers - my CPU.

Can't see why they would laugh at you for calling their computers a PC and a Mac, after all they are different platforms. I wonder if those two would freak out if you placed a Linux computer in front of them?

 

[slag]

It's incorrect to use CPU to refer to the case or any of the components therein. What seems to be confusing you is the difference between processor and microprocessor. Processors in the first computers were not on single boards, which apparently could lead someone to believe there was no such thing as a CPU - specifically the central part. The CPU has always been a component. The fact that you have a book that says otherwise isn't validation of the counterpoint; it's validation that incorrect terminology continues to exist.

The consolidation of the CPU onto a monolithic substrate is why we now call CPUs microprocessors the vast majority of the time. CPUs can still spread over multiple physical boards that interconnect via various methods. Microcontrollers are often used as sub-components of what could be called a CPU even though they are sometimes electrically isolated from each other. The concept is the same.

What you're describing is the word computer, which has also evolved to describe more types of machines than what your book would have intended at the time. Even still, calling the tower a CPU was just as wrong then as it is now. Not that it makes me automatically right about this, but I literally spent the first decade of my career as an electrical engineer working on CPUs and I went to the Intel CPU museum about 20 times while I was in Santa Clara for business. This type of terminology is used very specifically; computer is the generalized word that describes things such as towers.

From the Wikipedia article on CPUs:


I own the book that's used as reference [2], which disagrees with using CPU as general terminology. That book also pre-dates any argument about supposedly referring to macroscopic components or systems as the CPU.

P.S. Sorry about the really slow reply that almost certainly is too late for anyone to care about at this point. I was out of the country for a while.

LOL, trying to teach me or lecture me about computers is laughable since I'm a sysadmin, however, the terminology has changed over the years, whether you like to admit it or not. I, too, find it funny someone would call a case that houses the processor the "cpu", but when microcomputers first came out, that is what they were called. I'm sure there's even a youtube video floating around out there with this nomenclature, no matter how antiquated and incorrect it is, but i don't care to look it up right now and I didn't keep my textbooks that covered that either.
And so, while I thank you for continuing this curious phrase of computer parts, please, stop trying to correct me or teach me about the various parts of a computer. I've been building them, as has most of anandtech, since the 8088 days and some, probably earlier than that.
Slag