Anthropomorphizing computers

do any of the programmers here do it?  Do you curse at your rigs, do they have names, are they male or female?

My fileserver/webserver/ftp server/game server is named "Princess BananaHammock", may she reign forever in her benevolence and mercy.

muppet
Saturday, August 14, 2004

I called my old Mac "Maggie".

Neo
Saturday, August 14, 2004

Warrior Princess.

.
Saturday, August 14, 2004

I hate this stupid machine

I really wish that they'd sell it.

It never does what I want

Just what I tell it.

J. D. Trollinger
Saturday, August 14, 2004

Gee, I don't. I just name them after locations or rooms or departments. I remember back in college when my buddies would name them after solar systems and movie characters though--those were the good days (hard drive the size of a bicycle wheels--yay!).

Li-fan Chen
Sunday, August 15, 2004

I used to know one girl who gave pet names to everything. Including her computer. Which kept making endless problems, unexpected crashes, odd behaviors, you name it... She got a second one; named it too; same story. The third one I told her to refer to as "the box" - what would you know, it's been working ever since without trouble. ;)

.
Sunday, August 15, 2004

Anyone remember the computer named "Chip" from Whiz Kids, circa 1983? Ritchie Adler I believe was the kids name...

I used to religiously watch that show while reading the latest copy of "K" magazine while dreaming of replacing my TRS-80 with one of them fancy Apple IIe's.

Ahhh...the days.

Stalin
Sunday, August 15, 2004

it depends, here are some I use:
"you son of a b..tch"
"idiot"
"muppet"

Sunday, August 15, 2004

> Anyone remember the computer named "Chip" from Whiz
> Kids, circa 1983? Ritchie Adler I believe was the kids name...

Hey I remember that show! Back when owning a micro-computer was ultra cool.

Matthew Lock
Sunday, August 15, 2004

I never 'name' them, but each one has its personality.

I often curse the code, though.  Especially when I'm trying to burn a CD, and Outlook or IE raise the load of the PC so much the CD 'runs-dry'.  (When this  happens you must start again, and toss the previous CD -- it's useless).

And yes, that old "Don't Do What I Told You, Do What I MEANT to Tell You" syndrome gets me from time to time.

AllanL5
Sunday, August 15, 2004

My almighty furious screaming Powermac G5 is called...

... TROGDOR THE BURNiNATOR!

Ron
Sunday, August 15, 2004

I once did some work at a telecoms client site and got the LAN guys to name the big-momma billing server I was working on "Godzilla". I also got them to name the smaller test server "Godzooki".

Before that, they named all their servers after Disney characters, so I broke the mould.

Nemesis
Monday, August 16, 2004

When stuff on the computer creates stupid problems I sometimes become so angry that i hit the screen. And hard too. I had a monitor drop off the rear of the desk after a particularly well-placed jab. Since then the display was permanently trapezoid. I knew a guy who would actually spit on the screen in disgust (okay, it was me).

What does it have to do with anthropomorphology? I guess it's funny that we target the screen, when that's probably the most innocent piece of the whole setup. But in lack of finding the idiot who wrote that garbage API I suppose it's just convenient.

I need therapy, I know...

no way
Monday, August 16, 2004

Ever since playing Hamlet back in high school, I've been naming my computers after the characters - Hamlet being the first, followed by Claudius, Gertrude, etc.

The hacked apart non-working case sitting in the closet is still referred to as Yorick.  :)

Greg Hurlman
Monday, August 16, 2004

Igor, Vimes, Carrot ...

trollop
Monday, August 16, 2004

Always have, always will.

My current computer (iBook G4) is "Whitey" with a HD icon of J.R. "Bob" Dobbs. My previous computer (Titanium PowerBook G4) was "Thor" with a HD icon of some character from "Where the Wild Things Are." My Bondi Blue iMac was "Secret Agent Cat." My work computer (Dell with Windows 2000) is "Their Computer."

But then I've always named my cars, too.

Bill Brown
Monday, August 16, 2004

Don't anthropomorphize computers. They *hate* that.

Gareth McCaughan
Monday, August 16, 2004

Muppet, out of sheer curiosity, did you just learn a new word?

Or were you just practicing typing to adjust to one of those  MS natural-key keyboards?

Just picking
Monday, August 16, 2004

Err?  I didn't realize that anthropomorphize was a difficult word.  I've heard it used quite often.  I suppose you're more used to "pesonification", which really isn't much simpler.

muppet
Monday, August 16, 2004

I thought pesoification was just monitization to a mexican.

Miles Archer
Monday, August 16, 2004

Ah good, with the spelling Nazis here, we can all crack open the salad cream.

muppet
Monday, August 16, 2004

I just had to pick on you. You don't get enough of that.

I think what I do is actually more like canineopomorphism.

bitchomputer
Monday, August 16, 2004

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