robin@nmtvax.UUCP (07/19/83)
Exerpts from 'Real Dweebs Don't Socialize'(coming soon): ************************************************************************** NOTE: Dweeb is a term used here at New Mexico Tech to refer to Computer Science majors. It refers to the beeps a terminal makes(as in a ctrl-G). ************************************************************************** Sitting in the user area for Upper San Oberton Beach University's DECsystem-30, Dan Lisp(formerly Dan Williams, but changed his name to become closer to the computer) punches away on the keyboard of the VT100, watching letters accumulate in front of his eyes. "Y'know, there is one thing that I cannot understand," he says in a free moment, "and that is why people work with other people when they can work with the machine." Machine is a term often used by dweebs to refer to a computer. "People are simply not as dependable as a good Cray. Real dweebs know this. They would rather program than party. They would rather go to the user area than go to a Stones concert. They would rather play with a heapsort than play with some female. I guess what I am trying to say is real dweebs don't socialize." During the conversation, Dan punched in a program and attempted an execution(that is, he tried to see if it worked). The computer informed him that he made a mistake by flashing several lines of apparent gibberish across the screen. In a mininum number of keystrokes, he had the thing working joyously. "It is so easy to manipulate the machine. Their built to be manipulated. This is not so easy with people." It may seem that Dan is totally enthralled with the computer, but he still has his complaints. "Look at all this 'user-friendly' junk, systems designed to make the machine easier for those wimps who don't know what they are doing. And what does it accomplish? Those who didn't know what they were doing in the first place still ask the user-consultant for help and the system becomes terribly bogged down in the process. There are reasonable degrees of 'user-friendliness', but c'mon. "Something else that gets on my nerve is people who are called dweebs, who could never pass by my defintion. These are people who work with com- puters(some who even enjoy working computers), but do things real dweebs would never do. Some of these people actually care more about their wives or girlfriends than they do about the machine. Others would rather play games on the machine than program. The ones that make me the most sick, though, are those who let anything occupy more of their time than the machine occupies. They simply don't place the machine first." I suppose that's it.