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  • Wizard Of Id: Social Media Before Computers

    From Lynn McGuire@3:633/10 to All on Sun Jul 26 14:58:52 2026
    Wizard Of Id: Social Media Before Computers
    https://www.gocomics.com/wizardofid/2026/07/26

    Heh.

    Lynn


    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Lawrence D?Oliveiro@3:633/10 to All on Thu Jul 30 03:39:59 2026
    Nitpick: there were *always* computers around. Remember what the term originally meant: a *person* who did computations. When the machines
    were invented, they were called ?automatic? computers.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Gary R. Schmidt@3:633/10 to All on Thu Jul 30 16:35:50 2026
    On 30/07/2026 13:39, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:
    Nitpick: there were *always* computers around. Remember what the term originally meant: a *person* who did computations. When the machines
    were invented, they were called ?automatic? computers.

    Yes, but they were "Computors," and very many (most???) of them were women.

    Cheers,
    Gary B-)

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Lawrence D?Oliveiro@3:633/10 to All on Thu Jul 30 21:50:54 2026
    On Thu, 30 Jul 2026 16:35:50 +1000, Gary R. Schmidt wrote:

    On 30/07/2026 13:39, Lawrence D?Oliveiro wrote:

    Nitpick: there were *always* computers around. Remember what the
    term originally meant: a *person* who did computations. When the
    machines were invented, they were called ?automatic? computers.

    Yes, but they were "Computors," and very many (most???) of them were
    women.

    My first thought about ?computor? is that it?s the kind of quaint
    misspelling (with accompanying suitable pronunciation) that only
    survives in kids? comics or cartoon TV shows ;). (Like ?equasion? I
    remember seeing once in a Disney comic.)

    Wiktionary gives the ?computor? spelling as ?obsolete?, and also
    suggests ?computress? for a woman doing the job of a human computer.
    And you?ll note the citation from 1927 mentions a man as a human
    computer.

    <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/computor> <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/computer#English> <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Citations:computer#English>

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)