davidst@teklabs.UUCP (David D. Stubbs) (10/06/83)
I've been following the "help wanted" ads in Portland's The Oregonian
for the past few days: it seems "key punchers" are extinct as a species.
They are now variously called: VDT Operators, CRT Operators, Data Entry
Clerks, Word Processors (who is the processor and who is the
processee?), and Data Entry Technicians.
Perhaps those of us who described ourselves with one of the friendlier
(softer) definitions of "hacker" and lament its passing could now
become "key punchers": those lovable galoots* who sometimes write
programs just for the fun of it and don't much care about the pronouncements
of pedants. Being a "key puncher" would have some of the same low-key charm
the "cow punchers" of American Mythic History [have|had] (until NEWSPEAK
decides key punchers are brave-new-world Luddites and destroy terminals).
Regards!
David Stubbs
* If you can find a proper spelling for this word - and maybe a definition -
I would appreciate a note. My Webster's is no help.
uucp: {ucbvax,decvax,pur-ee,ihnss,chico}!teklabs!davidst
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USPS: David Stubbs
Electronic Systems Laboratory, MS 50-383
Tektronix, Inc.
PO Box 500
Beaverton OR 97077
Phone: 503-627-2627
--
David D. Stubbsrfg@hound.UUCP (R.GRANTGES) (10/07/83)
If those "lovable galoots*" really didn't care much for the
pronouncements of pedants, they wouldn't be so excited about
the recent teapot tempest over "hacker." By the way, I think
"hacker" was a term of approbation inside the profession of
newspaper writing before the computer hacks picked it up.
-Dick Grantges hound!rfg
* galoot - Slang. An uncouth, awkward fellow. Websters Collegiate
Dictionary - Fifth Edition, 1949.
"... but I shot the galoot when he started to shoot
electricity into my walls." Robert W. Service